Antonio Conte ostensibly remains in charge at Chelsea after taking training on Monday, on the first full day of pre-season, despite uncertainty over his immediate future, with the Italian expecting to be sacked and Maurizio Sarri, the former Napoli coach, teed up as his successor.

For Conte, who has 12 months to run on his £9m-a-year contract, it remains business as usual and the Italian returned to Cobham on Saturday, with two days of medical testing, led by his fitness coaches and other backroom staff, taking place before full training commenced this week. Conte did not oversee the medical tests at the weekend, with his own pre-determined training programme always scheduled to begin this week.

Álvaro Morata was among those to be assessed on his return, with other first-team players not involved at the World Cup in Russia, including Marcos Alonso, Danny Drinkwater and Ross Barkley also returning for training at the weekend. On Sunday Conte’s younger brother, Daniele, posted an image of the club’s coaching staff, on Instagram, with a message that read: “Come on Chelsea Come on Team Conte!!!”.

Sarri has held advanced talks with the Stamford Bridge club over replacing Conte, but the 51-year-old remains contracted to the Serie A club, who have named Carlo Ancelotti as his successor. Chelsea have been in a state of flux since the end of the season, though with four weeks until the summer transfer window closes, they have made headway with the CSKA Moscow midfielder Aleksandr Golovin, who would cost around £27m. There is also interest in the Juventus defender Daniele Rugani and Alisson Becker, the Roma goalkeeper, should Thibaut Courtois depart.

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Chelsea’s first pre-season game is in Australia, against Perth Glory on 23 July, before matches against Internazionale and Arsenal. They will contest the Community Shield, against Manchester City, at Wembley after Chelsea lifted the FA Cup in May. Conte won the Premier League in his first full season at the club in 2017 and led Chelsea to a fifth-placed finish last season.